updated 12:02 pm EDT, Mon April 7, 2014

Memo talks developing 'countermeasures'

An internal Samsung document from late 2011, obtained by AppleInsider, posits "beating Apple" as the company's top priority for the following year. The document discusses "lessons learned" from 2011, and says that the "threat from Apple is extremely real and urgent." It lays out various strategies the company was planning to implement; while some of these weren't directly targeted at Apple, the memo also refers trying to "understand why consumers buy Apple and develop countermeasures by carrier/retailer."

Samsung also includes forecasts for Apple in 2012, for instance incorrectly forecasting that the iPhone 5 would ship in June, and that T-Mobile would join the list of US carriers. The 5 actually shipped in September, and T-Mobile didn't become an official iPhone carrier until early 2013.

Apple and Samsung have become locked in an intense rivalry, since the two companies are often the most powerful individual smartphone makers in any given market. The same year as the leaked memo, Apple began filing lawsuits against Samsung, claiming that the latter's Android-based Galaxy devices stole patented concepts. A 2012 trial ended up granting Apple hundreds of millions of dollars in damages; a second trial is currently underway.